Thursday, 26 January 2012

BeWrite Books’ exclusive idea of free mini-ebooks covering all its titles is proving a huge success with browsers, readers and authors ... after just four weeks of the mass launch of well over 100 on New Year’s Day.

The feedback has been flippin’ amazing. And everyone’s a winner.

Each of these wee productions of between thirty and seventy pages carries full-colour cover and includes book notes, reviews, author biography and picture, and a generous extract from the book itself.

They make browsing a pleasure, reader selection foolproof, and are proving a wonderful, easy-to-use promotional tool for authors to boot. It’s the ‘good old days’, 2012-style.

Each title in the BeWrite Books catalogue is now covered by its mini-ebook. They can be read on our website’s bookstore HERE and freely downloaded, printed out or shared on other websites, other blogs, and even in emails by hitting the buttons at the bottom of the displays or simply by copying and pasting their individual URL/s.

Pages can be quickly turned by clicking on the little arrows at either side; but so far, folks -- even died-in-the-wool ebook readers -- tell us they enjoy the special thrill of seeing an ebook look and perform like the old treebooks they used to love. Using a finger or thumb to turn the pages on a touch screen or your cursor on a PC or laptop, the pages curl over like those of a traditional treebook and display two pages at a time like a paperback or hardback.

Just for fun, turn on your sound and you can even hear the cracking ‘paper’ pages as they flip ... hence the name of the special software BB Editorial and Design Director Tony Szmuk used to create them over the closing months of last year, ready for their launch: ‘Flipping Books’.

(I guess the smart US developers of this marvelous, but darned expensive, software were unaware of the fact that ‘flipping’ is a UK euphemism for the other F-word. That’s OK. We’re grown-ups.)

Browsers and readers tell us the mini-ebooks remind them of the unhurried experience and warmth of the old local brick-and-mortar bookshop ... in days of yore when they still had one.

After coming-up six decades as an avid reader and forty-seven as a pro-writer and editor, I no longer have a love affair with print, but if you still feel nostalgic, I just read of an app that actually allows you to smell paper as you read an ebook. Potty but true! No doubt there'll be an app for paper mold stinks and virtual book worm (the insect variety) disintegration of ebook volumes soon.

My IT-pro son, Alex, told me when we were discussing the legitimacy of 1960s and 1970s novels as historical fiction: ‘Get real, Dad; these days youngsters feel nostalgic before lunch about what they had for breakfast.’

If you visit the BEWRITE BOOKS BOOKSTORE, click on any title. That will take you to that book’s individual page. Scroll down to ‘Brochure’, click on that and – voila – you have your free mini-ebook. (Please allow five seconds or so for upload because these are real ebooks in their own right and not mere extra website pages). For a shortcut, HERE'S AN EXAMPLE.

You’ll notice on the left of the screen display a table-of-contents panel to easily skip to the portion of the mini-ebook you want to see. But if you close this, you will have the book presented at full size and can flip through its pages at leisure. And if you click on ‘full screen’, it’s even more impressive.

By the way, these mini-ebooks are now to be created ahead of a new title’s release. As soon as a book is prepared for publication and a release date is set in stone, the mini-ebook will be created. So you’ll notice a new feature at the foot of our bookstore’s front page: ‘Coming Soon’.

Currently featured is Cemetery Ridge, to be fully released in paperback and all digital editions on February 10. But click on it now and you can read its covering mini-ebook to see if it’s one for you. (It’s HERE if you’d prefer to go direct.)

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Everyone knows Cancerians aren’t superstitious, so Friday 13th of Jan is as an auspicious a day as any to proudly and fearlessly release our latest e-omnibus of three unabridged novels in a single download ... and at about 50% less than the ebooks’ combined individual cover prices.

This new BeWrite Books e-omnibus covers the first trio of books in Peter Tomlinson’s acclaimed Petronicus Legacy series. A fourth in the series – The Life of Nistal – will be released later this year.

So if you’re not yet acquainted with Peter or Petronicus, now’s the time.

This unique collection, of appeal to all ages, spans ten generations’ struggle in an unidentified land and at an unspecified time in ancient history when wisdom stands against dark superstition, courage against savage brutality, hope against almost certain defeat. It is a saga of the indomitable human spirit.

Each book is a stand-alone novel in its own right but, as with all series, far more satisfying if read in sequence. (The individual novels are also available in paperback at all online stores.)

You can plough through the individual title notes below or skip them and simply visit the BeWrite Books store HERE and download a free mini-ebook of the e-omnibus containing book descriptions, reviews, author biography and picture, and free extracts.

These intriguing, informative, entertaining and fun mini-ebook productions that now cover all our titles – an exclusive BeWrite Books’ innovation – are proving more popular than we’d dared hope since they went live on New Year’s Day.

As always with a new BB release, the first three to email THIS ADDRESS with the correct answer to the following question can claim a free copy in the digital format of their choice: In order, what are the titles of the novels contained in this e-omnibus edition and what is the title of the fourth in the Petronicus Legacy series to be released later in 2012?

Happy weekend, folks. Neil et al at BB

***

The Stones of Petronicus:

A new-born baby is left naked and exposed to die on a city wall while his father is hanged for petty theft a few feet away amid the cheers and hoots of a crazed mob.

Petronicus, an itinerant healer and man of wisdom, takes the babe to heart and together they begin a quest for knowledge, groping through a maze of magic and madness to find answers in the cruel and mysterious ancient world.

The boy grows to manhood in strange lands where a chosen few risk death in their search for truth, bitterly opposed by ruthless rulers and puppet priests who strive to enslave their subjects in a perpetual Dark Age of superstition and suspicion.

The heart-warming, honest but complex simplicity Petronicus and his adopted son share leave the reader wiser than when he joined them on their remarkable journey.

Not since the Fables of Aesop has a book like this been written. And Tomlinson wraps the sage advices in the tales Petronicus tells in a story as intriguing and exciting as any high-octane thriller – and with characters so real you’ll meet them time and again in your dreams … and your nightmares.

***

The Time of Kadrik:

Kadrik’s time is a terrible time. The land is ravaged by plague and famine, savaged by desperate, starving renegades, terrorized by the mysterious race of Men Half-Made, and in the grip of crippling superstition.

Here, fatherless Kadrik grows to manhood and to the chilling realisation that he – armed only with ancient stories he has committed to memory and a few shards of strangely marked broken pottery – holds the key to salvation.

In this self-contained sequel to his acclaimed The Stones of Petronicus, Peter Tomlinson sets his second tale in the saga ten lifetimes on when, after a long, dark age of stagnation, the land is in its death throes and Kadrik must break the hold of a powerful but backward brotherhood of scribes to save it.

Tomlinson follows Kadrik, with his insatiable thirst for knowledge, through a troubled young adulthood as precocious apprentice to the wise men of his community to the discovery of jealously guarded secrets ... and on a perilous mission to reveal the hidden truths that are his people’s only slim chance of survival; secrets sealed by the death of his mysterious and legendary ancestor in the mists of tribal memory.

'The Time of Kadrik' is an unforgettable journey of profound wisdom, rare courage and breathtaking adventure from a world class story-teller whose magical pen leaves a memory on each and every page.

***

The Voyages of Delticos:

They are four – the scribe, the outcast, the stranger and one only half-human. But the storm-lashed little band in its pathetic wooden boat is the last hope of a dying people devastated by plague and famine and ravaged by a desperate army of marauding cutthroats.

Delticos, Kadrik, Bantius and the Man Half-Made battle tyranny and lies, epidemic and dark superstition armed with only raw courage and the wisdom of ages to save a doomed race from extinction.

Peter Tomlinson throws us back into the mists of memory when the earth was young, yet old; simple, yet complex; gentle, yet violent, in a satisfyingly self-contained novel that is also the third of his acclaimed Petronicus Legacy series.

The Voyages of Delticos is the latest in a ten-generation saga in which sages and warriors stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a war against ignorance and savagery to save the ancient world from an eternal dark age.

A book in which not only the story and its characters are memorable, but what they say … The appendix of collected sayings that follows this novel and its predecessors is worthy of Aesop. And that, perhaps, is the real legacy of Petronicus.

Thursday, 5 January 2012

The festivities are over and hangovers are hung-up until next time. And since the sparkling new BeWrite Books website went live this week, it’s been All Systems GO!

Our revolutionary Ebook-First with ready-to-go for-print files policy is already proving more popular than we’d ever expected, and our new free mini-ebooks for each BB title are doing the job we’d hoped for, thanks to our energetic, imaginative authors, in-house promotions folks and online syndication and trade press exposure.

More than 120 BB mini-ebooks went live this week, with full-color cover, book notes, author biographies, reviews and free extracts. They're there for the sharing, so spread them around, add them to blogs and websites, email them to contacts and fans. Use them as best you possibly can. We certainly will because they took Tony and the team months to compile and we ain't about to let all that effort and unique initiative wither on the vine.

There are currently more than fifty exclusive, contacted but as yet unpublished, BB titles at various stages of editorial, design and technical preparation for release as soon as possible, and new offerings are flooding in by the day since we re-opened to fresh submissions on January 1. (The first arrived at my desk three minutes after midnight in the New Year. Thanks!)

There’s never been such a thing as a free lunch. At BeWrite, we’ve learned there’s not even such a thing as free time for lunch. 2012 will see us all working harder than ever.

We’re a small pro team, as you know, so have a tad of patience to help us in what we believe is the future of the kind of publishing that matters. Please grant us the time necessary to apply ...

*Rigorous selection of potential titles.

**Editorial, cover and text design, and technical excellence.

***Blanket international marketing for effective launch.

****On-release and ongoing promotion.

*****And please do – whether a newcomer or an old hand at BeWrite Books – take time to study our new website. Pay particular attention to the lengthy but informative SUBMISSIONS section. The nifty brochure there lays the ground rules for untested authors and provides an important option to existing BeWriters.

There are more and more self-publishing 'opportunities' out there all the time if you’re in a rush to present potentially flawed mediocrity in arrogance or ignorance – some are push-button author mills playing the numbers game, others ask cash up front for dubious ‘services’ that can cost authors from hundreds to thousands of dollars, euros or pounds. They will 'publish' anything that comes their way. Make no mistake, their interest in books extends no further than bank books. Then you're on your own.

But if you want meaningful publication by an established publishing house of industry professionals that cuts no corners and asks no fees, DON’T expect instant publication at BeWrite Books. Hold your horses and work with us to make the very best of your work. It probably took years to write. Give us the time we need to get it right if we select your book for treatment and publication.

The choice is yours ... instant gratification through a sloppy rush job, or everlasting pride in a piece of solidly prestigious work, thoroughly and well treated in every way; a book for which the reader will thank you and admire you.

In 'true' publishing, a little patience is a great virtue.

We, like you, know the old story of the ‘Tortoise and the Hare’. Never forget who won!

Our motto has always been and will always be: “More haste ... more waste.”

BB will NOT contribute to the ever-growing heap of the sub-standard that once (often rightly) languished in a publisher's or agent’s slush pile but that now, far too often, sees the light of day as ‘self-published’.

We believe the reader should not break his or her heart panning a murky river for the rare chance of a tiny nugget of gold. Recreational reading time is precious. We respect the discerning reader as much as we do the diligent author.

BeWrite Books Recommends

Book Trailers

Subscribe to the blog

About

Contact Us

General enquiries to contact@bewrite.netEditorial enquiries to ntmarr@bewrite.netEditorial enquiries to hughtmccracken@bewrite.netPoetry enquiries to bewritepoetry@aol.comTechnical enquiries to tonyszmuk@bewrite.net